We Do Belong: A Misfit's Way of Life
They all had something weird about them. Something that others shunned them for. Shimmerpaw had her pelt. It practically shined in the sunlight and moonlight. Grasspaw was far too small for his age. No one in TreeClan believed good things came in small packages. Weaselpaw was creative, coming up with odd ways to catch prey and battle. They worked, but nobody cared. Softpaw had two odd things. One was her eyes, a weird purple color. The other was that she wouldn't fight. She couldn't. Some say it was destiny that they became friends. Others say it was disaster. Here is their story.... Chapter 1: Softpaw "Hurry up!" Lionclaw mewed, sharply. Today Lionclaw had told her that she would be battle training. The thought horrified Softpaw. Softpaw didn't want to hurt other cats, yet she wanted to be a warrior! "I'm coming," Softpaw muttered, her purple eyes flashing with annoyance. She was use to every cat treating her badly. Is it because of my eyes? ''Softpaw often wondered. They were in the training hollow, an open area with reeds around it. She ''hated ''this place and everything about it. Softpaw watched the other apprentices as they eagerly bounced around, exciting to learn fighting techniques. "Well, what should I teach you first?" Lionclaw snarled. "The back rake? Maybe the forepaw slash?" Lionclaw knew she didn't like fighting and seemed to be determined to make her life miserable by trying to make her fight almost every day. Softpaw despised her mentor, and it was obvious he wasn't too fond of her either. No one in the clan was. Everyone thought she was odd because of her purple eyes. "So watch what I do, and then attempt to do the same." Lionclaw continued. with his forepaws he let out a fierce slash that would slice any opponent's face. In a weak attempt, Softpaw somewhat copied him. Her blow was soft and faint, not having enough force to crush a leaf. "Pathetic!" Lionclaw hissed, rolling his amber eyes. "Try it again." Chapter 2: Weaselpaw Weaselpaw yawned and blinked open his eyes when he heard Spottedtail call. Weaselpaw dashed out of the apprentice's den. "Spottedtail, what are we doing today? Can we battle train? Please, can we batle train?" Weaselpaw shot Spottedtail many questions before he could answer. "I, er, thought we would just go on a Sunhigh patrol, then collect some Horsetail for Fawnheart," Spottedtail mewed his ears flickering with guilt, telling Weaselpaw that Spottedtail didn't want to train. Weaselpaw knew why, ''Everyone wants to avoid training with me just because I try to improve moves! '' "It's okay, Spottedtail, I'll take him training," Mossyfoot mewed her tail tip twitching. Weaselpaw could tell she was going out her way to please Weaselpaw. Mossyfoot was the kindest cat around. Weaselpaw followed Mossyfoot to the apprentice scorch excitedly. He had thought of a better way to do the belly rake. He couldn't wait to show them. "Watch this, Mossyfoot!" Weaselpaw slipped under the tortoiseshell and nipped her stomach. As she was distracted, the brown tom pushed her on her back and pretended to rake her belly. Mossyfoot grew an uncomfortable look in her amber eyes. "Well, I thought we could do things the more... uhh, Traditional way!" "Traditional is boring though! This way works better and no one will be expecting it!" Weaselpaw explained. Mossyfoot placed her dappled tail on her shoulder. "Well, not everyone in the clan appreciates your battle moves." Mossyfoot meowed in a hushed tone. "Weaselpaw, I know you want to get your warrior name soon. In order to do that, you must do things the way ''we ''do them. The way ''FlameClan ''does them." She tried to explain. "Do you understand?" The apprentice gave a small, dejected nod as he heard the words everyone had told him many times before. "Yes, I understand." Chapter 3: Grasspaw Grasspaw leaped on a mouse barely the size of a kit. After tackling it for a while he finally snapped it's neck. It was hard for him to take down such big prey mainly because of his ''very small size. Slatepaw already had caught two squirrels and one vole. "Nice catch," Slatepaw mewed, halfheartedly. Grasspaw nodded and looked to his mentor, Shadepelt. "Let's move on to the border," She meowed, not taking any notice of Grasspaw's catch. Slatepaw shrugged and raced ahead with Shadepelt and Swiftfoot. Soon everyone had caught atleast two peices of fresh-kill. All except Grasspaw. Finally, Grasspaw was creeping up on a thrush. It was about the size of him. Suddenly it let out an alarm call and was about to lift off. Grasspaw knew this was his only chance and leaped at it, only to find a feather in his paws and the thrush rising in the sky. "You missed it by a fox-length!" Shadepelt taunted, then flicked her tail, "Time to go back." "Only a mouse, Grasspaw?" Ivyflower, Grasspaw's mother, asked. Grasspaw nodded, gulping down his embarresment. Why does everyone expect so much from me?! I'm only the size of a kit. ''Grasspaw wanted to yowl. Grasspaw ate his fresh-kill by himself, like usual. Suddenly Copperstar appeared from her den. She waited for silence before meowing, "I have decided who will go to the gathering tonight. Badgerclaw, Beechfoot, Maplefern, Shadepelt, Leafcloud, Squirrelpaw, Flypaw and Grasspaw." Grasspaw jumped to his feet at the announcement. This was going to be his first gathering! Maybe Squirrelpaw would at least let him be near her. He walked over to the pretty brown she-cat. "H-h-hi... Squirrelp-p-paw" He stuttered, blown away by the apprentice's silky cocoa brown fur and stunning green eyes. "What do you want, Grass''kit?" Flypaw sneered as he huffed up his chest to make him look even bigger and stronger than he already was. Squirrelpaw placed her bushy tail over his mouth. "I believe Grasspaw was talking to me, Flypaw, not you." Her smooth voice teased. "What is it?" "I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out later at the gathering, and show me the way around?" Grasspaw flinched back awaiting a clever, yet hurtful, remark. "Sure! I could introduce you to some of the other apprentices!" She let out a slight smile before she padded to the apprentice den. It was just him and Flypaw, the large apprentice who he didn't exactly see eye-to-eye with. "Listen, puny..." He snarled, his black and white coat bristling. "Stay away from Squirrelpaw, because she's mine." Grasspaw merely nodded. "I was just ask-" "Don't try to flirt with her... Whatever!" He scoffed, holding his head high. "As if she'd ever look twice at a midget like you! Not when she can have me!" With one large flourish, Flypaw left the clearing. Chapter 4: Shimmerpaw Shimmerpaw walked out on Sunningshore, the warm newleaf sun seeping through her dark pelt. It shimmered in the sunlight, something quite unusual. There were some toms who found it beautiful and were madly in love with her appearance. The others were either jealous or saw her as some sort of freak. Shimmerpaw wondered if she would go to the gathering. Suddenly her brother, Thistlepaw dashed up to her. "Shimmerpaw, you better come back to camp!" Shimmerpaw gave him a questioning look, "Why?" Thistlepaw snorted, "Rockstar called a clan meeting!" Shimmerpaw flicked her tail and followed Thistlepaw. Shimmerpaw didn't usually talk to the other apprentices, except for the ones that mooned over her. She didn't really even talk to Thistlepaw and he was her littermate. Once more, the young tom dashed out of sight. "Thanks for the guidance!" The glossy black she-cat yelled down the sandy shore. She was stopped by Olivepaw, whose snide look meant nothing but trouble. "Hey freak," The red she-cat laughed. She turned her slightly-misshapen head around, not facing her. "Sorry, I would look at you but I don't want to go blind from looking at your coat." She let out a haughty laugh and pushed Shimmerpaw into the river. Shimmerpaw could swim, but not when she wasn't expecting on swimming. Her black head went underwater and was having trouble getting it above surface, she was drowning and prayed someone would come rescue her as she started to drift away. She heard a splash in the river, and teeth pull her up. She looked up to see a small, brown and white tom. Chapter 5: Softpaw "Softpaw, guess what? You get to go to the gathering. Finally!" Lionclaw hissed to her face. Softpaw often wondered why Lionclaw was even her mentor. He hated her, most of her clan thought she was wimpy but Lionclaw despised her. Just plain hated her. "See ya!" He sneered and padded off, leaving Softpaw alone. At least I get to go to the gathering. Softpaw padded off to a corner near a yew bush, where she usually hung out, observing the shapes of clouds and such. A rustle in the yew bush came and something jumped out and pinned her to the ground. It was a jet black cat, with green eyes that had a malicious look to them. "Hey, wimp." The voice sneered. It was female, the voice of Nightpaw. "What's wrong? Too ''cowardly ''to fight back? Hey, why don't you open those weird, purple eyes of yours? ''Freak. ''You're a freak!" Softpaw tried to ignore the taunts of her peer, shoving her off and making a run for it. She ran as fast as she could, her tortoiseshell and white coat ruffling in the breeze. Once she was sure she had been safe, Softpaw rested and caught her breath. Something didn't smell right. This wasn't her territory. A felt dust all over her face, which caused her to have a coughing fit. Then someone pounced on top of her, causing her to let out a shrill yowl. "What are you doing?" He hissed. "This is FlameClan territory!" "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to trespass, I was just walking and didn't realize I crossed the scent line!" She wailed, pleading for him not to hurt her. "Fine, I'll let you go, but be careful next time. What do you think any of the others would do? I promise not to tell anyone." He had a light look in his green eyes and then padded deeper into his territory. Chapter 6: Weaselpaw Weaselpaw let out an annoyed growl. Why couldn't that she-cat keep to her own territory? Though Weaselpaw had to admit, she was fairly pretty and she had a nice tingly voice. However, what really caught his attention were the eyes. They were violet, just like the flowers that bloomed in Newleaf. Her eyes were the exact same colour. Category:Fanfiction Category:Hazeleye's Fan Fictions Category:Littlewillow's Fanfic